


A Skyful of Stars

by EldritchSandwich



Category: Original Work
Genre: Butch/Femme, F/F, First Time, Fluffy Sandwich, Happy Ending, Romance, Small Towns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 00:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11702880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EldritchSandwich/pseuds/EldritchSandwich
Summary: Joni's near her breaking point, but Pepper the mechanic's dying to help her. Can two young women in the middle of nowhere make it on their own?





	A Skyful of Stars

"Okay, where's the patient?"

Joni couldn't help giggling as Pepper launched out of the tow truck and swaggered up toward the trailer. Joni smoothed her hands down her flannel shirt as she jogged down the steps to meet her.

"Around back. Thanks for comin' all the way out here..."

The town mechanic grinned a wide, warm grin. "Oh, you know country doctors and makin' housecalls..."

Joni smiled. As they rounded the the back of the house, she pointed to the beat-up old blue pickup. "Started fine yesterday, but then today I was gonna go buy groceries and it just wouldn't turn over. I know it's a piece of shit, but it didn't even give me no warning..."

"Well, pop the hood, let's see what we got."

Joni rushed to comply, climbing up into the cab as Pepper peeled off her jean jacket to reveal the dirty wifebeater underneath and the smooth, defined brown muscles of her arms and shoulders bulging and flexing as she leaned over. Joni didn't think she'd ever seen a woman as well-built as Pepper Sandoval; between the muscles and her strong jaw and the short, shaggy cut of her dark brown hair it was understandable when people said she looked a bit like a man, but as far as Joni was concerned that was ridiculous. Pepper was all woman.

"Ready whenever you are," Pepper shouted, and Joni flushed and averted her eyes as she belatedly started fumbling for the release.

When the hood popped open, Joni climbed back down and joined Pepper around the front just in time to watch her lean over the engine, jeans stretched tight against the backs of her thighs. Joni cleared her throat. "So, um, how's it look?"

"Well, don't see anything outta place. You mind turnin' her over?"

Joni shook her head. "Oh. Yeah, of course. Hang on..."

She climbed back into the cab and turned the key, the engine whimpering pathetically and Pepper nodding. "Oh, that's an easy one right there. Just a dead battery. Musta run down in the night, you didn't leave the lights on or anything, did ya?"

Joni burst into tears. Pepper shot up, scrambling to help her down from the cab and wrapping her strong arms around Joni's shaking body.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I just gotta run back to the garage and get a new one, I won't even charge for the installation..."

"I...I'm sorry," Joni hiccuped, her hands digging into the back of Pepper's undershirt to the firm muscle underneath. "I just...it's just one more fuckin' thing, y'know? The cancer...the cancer's gettin' worse, and I can't buy the medicine cuz Mama's sendin' all her money to this...preacher on TV who she thinks he's gonna cure her, and I gotta get a second job but then I won't be able to take care of her, and Ronny broke up with me and—"

"Hey, hey, shh, it's okay, baby, it's okay," Pepper purred, her fingers combing through Joni's red curls. "Joni, you're the smartest girl I ever met, you can figure it out. And I...well I can help you, if you want."

Joni sniffed, pulling her head away from Pepper's warm shoulder far enough to shake it. "I...I can't ask you to do that..."

"I want to," Pepper said into her hair. The words were followed by a gentle kiss to the top of her head. "C'mon, why don't we ride back down to the garage together, we can talk on the way?"

Joni shook her head again. "No. Thanks, I mean, I don't wanna leave Mama alone, but..." Joni licked her lips. "Why don't...why don't you go and get the battery like you said, and then when you come back we can...talk over dinner?"

Joni pulled back from the hug to find Pepper grinning that warm, wide, comforting grin again. "I'd love that."

* * *

Joni looked up as the screen door opened, Pepper wiping the grease from her long, nimble hands with a rag as she stepped inside. When she noticed her watching, Pepper shot Joni a wink that made her eyes snap right back to the kitchen counter.

"You like lasagna, right?"

"Yeah, I love it. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Oh, no, I'm almost done. Is the truck—"

"Good as new. Well, the battery anyway, the rest of it's still a piece of shit..."

Joni chuckled. "How much do I owe you?"

"Don't worry about it, no charge."

Joni looked up from checking the oven door. "You...you really don't have to do that, I know I made a fool outta myself before, but—"

"Joni." Joni's mouth closed as Pepper slid up behind her and laid one of those rough, sure hands on top of hers. "I said no charge."

Joni bit her lip, fingers twitching under the heat of Pepper's. She let Pepper's hand stay there, resting on top of hers, until the lasagna was ready.

* * *

Dinner was...good. Well, the food was good, anyway, and Pepper made very sure to tell her that. The conversation had been a little awkward, owing more to what they weren't talking about than to what they were, but just having Pepper's company had been more than enough of a trade for any awkwardness. Joni was so used to it just being her and her mother, and occasionally Ronny, that having someone in the house who actually wanted to talk to her instead of just watch TV and be waited on made her tingle in her chest. Now that the dishes were done and Joni's mother was asleep, Joni and Pepper were sitting in the two folding chairs behind the trailer with their beers, looking up at the stars.

"It's crazy, isn't it?"

Pepper turned to face her. "Hm?"

"How big it all is. Do you ever think...you know, about what it's like out there?"

Pepper smiled knowingly. "You mean outer space...or do you just mean outside Millersville?"

Joni frowned. "I think about leaving sometimes," she murmured into the night. "Just packin' up and drivin' away, anywhere else. Maybe after...after Mama's gone, I will."

"What would you do?"

Joni shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I could be a waitress anywhere, you know?"

Pepper hummed thoughtfully. "I guess if that's what you want. I just think...if you don't know what you want to change, leavin' to do the same shit somewhere else doesn't really make sense to me, ya know?" Joni frowned. "I guess I see it like...maybe you should try to figure out what you don't think you can do here that you could do someplace else. Does that make sense?"

Joni swallowed. Pepper's voice was low and rough, and it almost sounded like she was hinting at something, pushing her. "I...I gotta confess something."

Pepper leaned closer over the edge of her chair. "Yes?"

"Ronny...Ronny didn't break up with me. Not...not really. I pushed him away."

Pepper shook her head. "Aw, you don't have to say that..."

"No, but I really did. I...the truth is I didn't want to be with him."

Joni could feel Pepper watching her. "Why not?"

Joni pursed her lips. "I, um...I don't think I was the right kind of girl for him," she said carefully, eyes fixed on her beer bottle. Her cheeks were on fire. "Do you know what I mean?" _Please, Jesus, know what I mean._

Joni's eyes snapped up when she heard the chair next to hers creak, and suddenly Pepper was crouched over her, plucking the beer bottle from her fingers. Pepper's other hand slid up behind Joni's neck to grab a handful of red curls. "C'mere, gorgeous..."

Joni sucked in a breath as Pepper's mouth touched hers, and that just made the kiss come faster. She let it back out in a sigh as Pepper's warm lips pushed against hers, Pepper's hands in her hair and hers sliding around to Pepper's back. The heat of Pepper's body against hers should have been too much in the muggy evening and, well, in a way it was. It was way too much.

"Joni?" Pepper whispered against her lips. "I want to make love to you."

Joni licked her lips, and almost died when, as a consequence, she also licked Pepper's. "I...I don't wanna wake Mama." Her hands slid down the backside of Pepper's jeans, and she almost died again. Joni swallowed. "There's a blanket in the bed of the truck..."

Pepper grinned that grin again. "Perfect."

Pepper practically carried her there, kissing all the way and legs so entangled they almost tripped over each other. It wasn't that she didn't want to get to the truck—God, did she ever—but now that Pepper had kissed her and touched her it was like the floodgates had opened and she couldn't hold herself back anymore. As Pepper climbed up into the truck bed and pulled her up after, Joni felt like every inch of her skin was on fire. When Pepper reached for the buttons on her shirt, though, she bit her lip.

"I, um...I never went all the way with a girl before. I don't...I might not know, you know...what to do."

"I'll show you," Pepper said as she pulled Joni down to straddle her, hands sliding up the back of Joni's shirt. "I'll show you."

And she did. _Oh Good Lord_ , she did.

* * *

Afterwards, they lie in the bed of the truck together, naked and sweaty and touching, touching everywhere. Joni can't speak, both because her throat's completely raw and because her head's too full of thoughts and plans and things that are dying when they get to the tip of her tongue. Not that it really matters, she supposes; she's perfectly content to just lie here naked in Pepper's arms in the back of her piece of shit blue pickup with a new battery for the rest of the night, or the week, or her life.

"Are you okay?" Pepper asks against the top of her head, and Joni nods, curling her sweaty head against Pepper's sweaty chest. She never knew sex could be such a workout. Pepper's quiet for a few seconds, just combing her fingers through Joni's curls. But then her fingers still, and she says "We could leave."

Joni tilts her head up. "What?"

Pepper's not looking at her, but back up at the skyful of stars that just watched them make love. "We could leave. The two of us. I...I'd leave with you. If you wanted."

Joni thinks, about Mama and the diner and Ronny and his friends, about Pepper's garage and what people will say. About leaving if it comes to that, and about whether it will. She nuzzles closer. "No. I think...I think right now, I've got everything I want right here in Millersville."

Pepper smiles and reaches for her hand. "Yeah. Me too."

They intertwine their fingers like their legs still are, and Joni leans up to give Pepper another kiss. They fall asleep like that, naked and sweaty with a ratty blanket and Joni's piece of shit truck below them and a skyful of stars above them, and neither one of them's ever slept so well in her life.


End file.
